Aemetis Receives Final Permit to Build Next 21 Miles of Phase 2 Biogas Pipeline
August 06, 2021 at 08:00 am EDT
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Aemetis, Inc. announced the final permit has been approved to begin construction of the next 21 miles of the Aemetis Biogas Phase 2 pipeline in Stanislaus County, Calif. This significant project milestone allows the installation of biogas pipeline in Stanislaus County roads for construction of a pipeline that extends the existing 4-mile pipeline by an additional 21 miles. The pipeline will convey conditioned biogas from dairies to the Company’s centralized gas cleanup facility which is currently under construction at the Aemetis Advanced Fuels Keyes ethanol plant. At the Keyes plant, the biogas will be upgraded to negative carbon intensity (CI) Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) for use as transportation fuel in trucks and buses. The RNG will be either delivered into the PG&E utility pipeline located onsite at the Aemetis ethanol plant, dispensed to trucks at the RNG fueling station being built at the Aemetis plant, or used as process energy in the Aemetis facility to replace petroleum-based natural gas. The Biogas Pipeline Encroachment Permit was issued by the Stanislaus County Department of Public Works. Previously, Aemetis announced that it received environmental approval for 32 miles of biogas pipeline from the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors for the Phase Two pipeline project’s Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND), the key approval necessary to meet the permitting requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) prior to pipeline construction. The CEQA approval confirms that mitigation measures in the biogas project will avoid or mitigate any impacts on the environment. The company is completing the permitting process for 13 miles of additional biogas pipeline in Merced County to connect additional dairies to the Aemetis biogas cleanup facility at the ethanol facility. The initial four-mile Phase 1 pipeline project was completed and commissioned in the third quarter of 2020 in conjunction with the completion of the Company’s first two dairy digesters. Once complete, the biogas clean-up hub will produce more than 1 million MMBtu of RNG. Recently, Aemetis received a-426 CI score for gas from the company’s first two dairy digesters, which is currently being utilized as process energy at the ethanol facility. Additionally, the system will displace 6.88 million diesel gallon equivalents (DGE) and eliminate 2,632,149 metric tonnes of CO2 equivalents per year. The $12 million pipeline project and the $12 million biogas cleanup facility are funded in part by a $4.2 million grant from the California Energy Commission.
Aemetis, Inc. is a renewable natural gas and renewable fuels company. It is focused on the acquisition, development and commercialization of technologies that replace petroleum-based products and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Its segments include California Ethanol, California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas, and India Biodiesel. California Ethanol segment includes the Companyâs 65 million gallon per year ethanol plant in Keyes, California. California Dairy Renewable Natural Gas segment is engaged in the production and sale of renewable natural gas and associated environmental attributes, consisting of anaerobic digesters located at diaries, at 36-mile biogas collection pipeline, and biogas upgrading hub and pipeline interconnect that produces Renewable Natural Gas from the biogas. India Biodiesel segment includes the Companyâs 60 million gallon per year nameplate capacity biodiesel manufacturing plant in Kakinada India, and administrative offices in Hyderabad, India.